DoorDash delivers favorite food on-demand, launches in PHX

San Francisco-based DoorDash, an on-demand marketplace that offers delivery-as-a-service to restaurants has officially launched in Phoenix.

According to DoorDash Director of Expansion Ryan Broderick, what interested the company in expanding to phoenix was the lively food industry.

“I think Phoenix is underserviced and lacks of great delivery service. There is such a strong restaurant scene, I’m blown away,” Broderick said.

DoorDash will initally launch in Scottsdale, Tempe, Kierland area, Arcadia, and Paradise Valley with more than 150 local restaurants including True Food Kitchen, The Original Chop Shop, P.F. Changs, California Pizza Kitchen, and many more, then expand to the East Valley and Downtown Phoenix.

While the Valley has seen a tremendous influx of on-demand delivery services such as GrubHub and Postmates ready to deliver food and more, what distinguishes DoorDash from their competitors is their intuitive technology, affordability and customer experience and service, Broderick said.

For restaurants that don’t have a designated delivery service, DoorDash looks to be that network to bridge drivers, patrons and merchants.

Traditionally merchants don’t choose delivery for many reasons, “Ultimately owners like to cook food and delight their customers. Many don’t deliver because of insurance or managing drivers is a drag,” Broderick said.

DoorDash’s motto is “delightful delivery” and their goal is to empower more family-owned to chain restaurants to offer delivery service, and the company will handle the rest.

Through the mobile app or desktop, customers can scroll through a list of restaurants located within a five mile radius of their location. With each restaurant, customers are given a timeline as to when they will receive their order.

DoorDash shares the deliver cost so they can make delivery more affordable for customers with a flat $4.99 fee and take lower commissions from merchants.

Once an order has been placed, the restaurant and driver are notified and the dashing magic begins. Though the customer only receives tracking information on their delivery time, there are advanced algorithms and machine learning technology in place to make sure it all works seamlessly.

“It’s a complicated math problem and much more complex operation than people recognize,” Broderick said. “DoorDash is built on smart learning technology. It’s all about understanding where every driver is at any time, where the food is in real-time, and takes into account time of day, weather, current traffic conditions and restaurant prep time.”

The company wants to ensure that your food is hot and fresh and gets there on time. “The restaurant prep time is critical because our service is designed to be fast-you don’t want a driver sitting at a restaurant waiting there for 20 minutes-we want the driver to show up when the food is ready,” Broderick said.

DoorDash is looking to join forces other brands to expand their reach. Recently they announced their partnership with Taco Bell and Gorditas galore can now be delivered to ones’ doorstep.

In Los Angeles, the company paired up with Whole Foods and Trader Joes as a test market to deliver premade meals, according to a report by re/code.

DoorDash is making it “really easy to get your favorite foods delivered. We aren’t reinventing the wheel, we are making the process better and focusing on the consumer experience,” Broderick said.

DoorDash started out as a group project at Stanford and was founded in January 2013 by Tony Xu, Evan Moore, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang. “When we first started, we were trying to solve our own problem of getting food delivered,” Tang said in the company blog. Once the founders figured out that food delivery was not built out for “the last mile” of deliveries, they dove in.

Desktop sample of restaurants and delivery times from Arcadia area at noon

The company has raised $60 million in total funding led by noteable Silicon Valley investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures.

The company currently services 16 markets, over 200 cities (including Phoenix), and by year-end they expect to serve more than 20 major geographies, according to their site.

Co-founder and CEO Tony Xui said in their company blog, “At DoorDash, we are solving a problem that requires both technological invention and operational execution. These challenges truly represent a marriage between a math problem and a human problem.”

DoorDash will house their office in the heart of ASU Sun Devil territory in Tempe and are actively recruiting Dashers.